1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a mini-card including a PC card and an IC card with a semiconductor device.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Now, a PCMCIA card (hereinafter referred to as PC card) and an integrated circuit card (hereinafter referred to as IC card) with a non-volatile semiconductor memory device have come to be spreading. Particularly, the PC card is reduced in size to a postage-stamp size. The PC card includes a semiconductor memory device such as an electrically erasable programmable ROM (hereinafter referred to as EEPROM) and one or more capacitors encased within a thin plastic case.
Referring to FIGS. 8A to 8D, the conventional method of manufacturing the IC cards is explained as follows. The method includes:    (1) A step of providing an array of multiple substrates:
An array 301 of multiple substrates including a plurality of substrates connected in line with each other is provided as shown in FIG. 8A.    (2) A step of mounting one or more circuit elements on the substrate array:
Circuit elements such as semiconductor memory devices 302 and 303 and a capacitor 304 are mounted on the individual substrates forming the substrate array as shown in FIG. 8B.    (3) A step of dividing the substrate array to provide the separate substrates:
The substrate array is divided to provide the separate substrates each having the semiconductor memory devices 302 and 303 and the capacitor 304 mounted thereon as shown in FIG. 8C.    (4) A step of encasing the individual substrates:
Referring to FIG. 8D, each substrate is encased in a plastic case by sandwiched it between top and bottom case halves 305 and 306, to thereby complete mini-cards 300 as shown in FIG. 9 in a perspective view.
Generally, before the encasing step, the substrate array is divided to separate the individual substrates 310. Each substrate 310 of a size about equal to that of a postage-stamp is difficult to handle during the encasing step, resulting in decrease of the rate of manufacture of the mini-cards 300.